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334 ADVENTURES IN TIBET.
had not, I fancy, thoroughly realised the actuality of my
plan. Perhaps after all the kulan that we saw the day
before really was a man ; at any rate, it was a warning that
we had not now very far to go before we should come to
human habitations.
We held a short consultation, but one thing was clear at
once : there was no time to lose. The Tibetans were pretty
certainly yak-hunters, and they would soon be returning
home ; it was, therefore, absolutely essential that we should
get hold of them if we could. They might give us valuable
information, and perhaps we might arrange to travel with
them, for amid the labyrinth of mountains which now lay
before us a guide was indispensable. That the}^ had seen
us did not admit of a shadow of doubt. If they escaped us
now, the}^ would make haste to report what they had seen,
and the news would travel swiftly from mouth to mouth all
the way to Lassa, and so we should be prevented from
reaching the Holy City. I at once ordered Shagdur and
the Lama to go to the Tibetans’ camp, which was only two
miles distant. The former, who was already attired in his
Mongolian dress, took with him tea and tobacco to con-
vince the Tibetans that we were friendly disposed towards
them. I also gave him some money (silver), so that he
might try to buy two or three horses. Thus equipped, they
plunged into the river again and disappeared behind the
hills on the other side.
It was dark when they returned. Upon reaching the
Tibetans’ camp they found nothing left except the smoking
embers, and two or three yaks’ skulls and bones. The trail
of the Tibetans’ caravan led to the east, and the question was,
should we try to catch them up or not ? We decided not to
follow them, owing to the poor condition in which our horses
were, especially as the Tibetans would be pretty certain to
travel all night and all the next day without stopping, so as
to put as great a distance as possible between themselves
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